The Big Finish (a McRoll in the REAL World story)
by sammy1026
Summary: Catherine learns a lesson about always keeping your head up around toddlers.


_Mari & Ilna-you guys are the absolute best! Thank you for everything! _

_REAL Worlders-you guys are awesome. Thanks for all the support and encouragement._

* * *

**The Big Finish (1/1)**

"Daddddy!" Angie careened across the living room at top speed and flung herself into Steve's arms.

"That's quite a greeting," he laughed as he kissed her face and gladly accepted an enthusiastic toddler hug, complete with little arms squeezing his neck.

"Daddy see!" She squirmed to get down.

Steve obliged, setting her on the floor and holding on for just a second to make sure she was steady, then turned to kiss Catherine. "Good day?"

"She couldn't wait for you to get home," Catherine said, returning the kiss. "She wants to show you what she learned in gymnastics class today."

The governor was leaving for a conference in Los Angeles and, since there was nothing pressing on the summer schedule, had given the entire staff an unexpected half-day off which had allowed Catherine to make it to Angie's toddler tumbling class followed by a rare, but welcome, mommy/daughter weekday afternoon.

"I wondered why she was still wearing her…" Steve waved his hand towards his daughter. "Gymnastics class get up."

"The word you're searching for is leotard." Catherine chuckled.

Steve grinned. "If you say so."

One of the things he found most confusing about being the father of a girl was how many of her clothes had specific names. Leotard, jumpsuit (which to him appeared to be the same thing as a leotard but apparently wasn't), romper, overalls, skorts, sundresses, one-piece, two-piece, capri, and on and on. For a man who defined his wardrobe as pretty much shirts and pants, with an occasional suit thrown in, it was quite a lot to remember. Though he was trying.

"Mama go," Angie said as she bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet. "Daddy see roll!"

"I can't wait." Steve stepped around the coffee table that had been moved out of the way to avoid possible injury.

Catherine took up a position as spotter. Angie, her face now a mask of concentration, leaned forward, placed her hands on the floor, followed by her head, and executed a solid forward roll. No wobbles. No crooked landing. No losing balance halfway through and ending up flat on her back on the floor. She finished her follow through and was back on her feet with a proud smile that lit up the room.

"Great job!" Steve clapped. "That was perfect."

Angie threw her arms in the air. "TADA!"

What happened next unfolded so fast that Steve was powerless to stop it.

Catherine, who was looking down to make sure Angie's feet were in the right position and not tangled up, didn't see Angie's head moving backward as she struck her TADA pose.

The result was the sickening crunch of toddler head meeting grown up nose.

And then all he could see was the blood.

Catherine let out a small howl of pain and her hands went immediately to her face. Steve was kneeling beside her in an instant. A split-second later Angie reacted to the increased emotion around her by screaming.

"Let me see it," Steve said.

"Check Angie first," Catherine insisted as she kept her hands pressed to her face.

Steve scooped up Angie and headed for the kitchen. After taking a second to regain her bearings Catherine followed.

Steve took a still crying Angie to the sink and wiped away the blood on the back of her head. "She's fine," he reported. "The blood is all yours."

Catherine nodded gratefully as she sat down on one of the kitchen chairs and leaned her head forward. Steve grabbed a dishtowel, ran it under cool water, and passed it to her. He kissed Angie's cheek. "It's ok. Everything is gonna be ok. Can you do daddy a favor and sit in your highchair like a big girl and not to try to climb out?"

Angie nodded, all the while never taking her eyes of her mother. "Mama boo boo?" she asked through her sobs.

"Mama boo boo," Steve confirmed. "But everything is gonna be ok."

He knelt beside Catherine who was now leaning slightly forward to reduce the blood pressure in her nose and pinching both nostrils together. He could tell without even seeing her face it was taking everything she had not to sob herself.

"I think we should go to the hospital," he said as he grabbed two cookies and put them on Angie's highchair tray.

Even the appearance of her most loved snack didn't calm Angie completely, though it did reduce the flow of tears slightly.

"Let's give it a few minutes and see if the bleeding stops," Catherine insisted.

Steve agreed, though he thought the chances of the bleeding subsiding on its own were slim to none. He could still hear the crunch in his head and experience told him it was something that would need to be handled by a medical professional.

When the bleeding hadn't subsided 10 minutes later, he picked up the phone and hit a familiar number on his speed dial.

"_Hello." _Joseph was greeted by the sound of Angie's sobbing and Steve's uncharacteristically elevated breathing sounds. _"Is everything ok?"_

"We've had a little accident, but everything is under control," Steve said in an effort to avoid any panic on the part of Catherine's father. "I think Catherine's nose might be broken."

Joseph didn't need to hear any other details. There'd be time for that later._ "I'm on my way."_

* * *

"Thanks," Steve said gratefully 15 minutes later when Joseph entered the kitchen.

"We didn't want to have to drag Angie to the ER," Catherine added from behind the fresh towel pressed to her face.

Joseph looked at the bloody towels in the sink. "What happened?"

"Angie was showing me how much better her forward roll is getting," Steve said.

"And I forgot to duck for the big TADA moment." Catherine finished his sentence.

Joseph winced sympathetically. "You guys get going. Angie and I will be just fine. Elizabeth and Ang are getting their hair done but I'll call them and fill them in on what's going on."

" 'Apa, mama boo boo," Angie whimpered.

"I see that." Joseph lifted her out of her highchair. "But no worries. The doctors will fix her up good as new." He turned to Steve. "Call as soon as you know anything."

* * *

As soon as the first nurse they made contact with upon entering the ER saw the bloody towel pressed to Catherine's face she and Steve were escorted immediately to an examination room. Just as they stepped inside Steve's phone rang.

He looked at the caller ID.

Danny.

"Take it," Catherine said.

Steve looked torn.

A young nurse entered the room with a rolling check-in station. "Hi, my name is Charla," she said.

"Take the call," Catherine insisted to Steve.

"If you need to take that can you please step out into the hall while I get started," Charla asked politely.

"I'll just be a second," Steve promised as he connected the call on his way out of the room.

Charla eyed the door warily. "I just need to get some information from you before we begin treatment."

"Okay," Catherine said. She wasn't a stranger to the procedure.

"First, I have to ask …" Charla lowered her voice and stepped closer to Catherine. "Are you ok? Do you feel safe at home?"

Catherine looked at the young nurse and realized how things must look from her perspective. A woman with a bloody nose, an intense looking husband on the phone in the hall. "Yes," she assured Charla, "I'm fine."

"We have resources we can provide if you need help," Charla offered.

Before Catherine could respond a familiar face entered the room. Leila Kapauni had taken Catherine's self-defense class several years earlier and returned regularly for refresher courses, often bringing along her friends and fellow nurses. "Everything ok in here?"

Catherine nodded. "I was just assuring Charla I'm perfectly safe at home."

Leila chuckled. "I'll say." She smiled at Charla. "The Commander out there," she hooked her thumb towards the hall, "definitely isn't the type to hit a woman. But if he ever did, or if anyone did for that matter, you can rest assured they'd be in the next room with injuries just as bad. Probably worse. Lieutenant Rollins can take care of herself."

Charla stepped back behind her check in station.

"However," Leila continued, "You did the exact right thing here. This situation presents several red flags and you reacted accordingly."

"She even found a way to politely get Steve out of the room so she could talk to me alone," Catherine said.

"Excellent work," Leila said sincerely.

Charla beamed.

"There's no intervention needed in this situation but unfortunately there will be in others and it's good that you're noticing the signs and prepared to act," Leila praised her young co-worker. "By the way," she turned to Catherine. "What did happen?"

"Angie was showing Steve her forward roll and I forgot to duck before her big finish," Catherine said.

"Ah. The age-old question of which is harder, a toddler head or a grown-up nose," Leila smiled. "We get that a couple of times a week. You finish up with the check in and I'll get a doctor in here as soon as I can."

"Thanks, Leila." Catherine attempted a smile.

"By the way," Leila turned back and smiled just before she left the room, "As far as I know, toddler heads are undefeated."

As Leila left Steve stepped back into the room.

"Is it a case?" Catherine asked.

Steve nodded.

"Then you need to go," Catherine said. "I'll be fine. I'll call Carrie to pick me up when I'm done."

"Absolutely not." Steve's tone left no room for negotiation. "I told them to get started without me and I'd call back as soon as we were done here. They'll be fine."

* * *

"Well the good news is I don't think it's broken," Dr. Thomas Watson said as he finished his examination. "It's impossible to know for sure until a couple of days have passed, and the swelling has reduced a bit, but I don't see or feel any displacement at all. I think you lucked out this time."

"Do you think she needs an x-ray?" Steve asked. "Or a CT scan? Just to be sure."

"I don't like to order those procedures unnecessarily," Dr. Watson said. "The bleeding has pretty much stopped. I'll pack the nose with gauze and recommend that you make an appointment with your regular doctor in 3 or 4 days for reevaluation. Of course, of it starts bleeding again, or you have any other unusual symptoms, you can come right back to the ER."

The doctor noticed Steve was still a bit edgy. "I've been doing this for a long time, Commander McGarrett," he said in a calm tone. "Everything is going to be fine. I'd make the same recommendations if it was my own wife or daughter."

Steve sighed with relief. "Thank you."

"The unfortunate thing is that, broken or not, the pain level is still going to be the same and you're very likely going to get at least one, if not two, pretty impressive shiners."

Catherine managed a resigned chuckled. "Hopefully they'll be gone by Angie's birthday party."

Steve smiled softly at her. "Whether they are or not, you'll still be the most beautiful woman there."

Catherine reached out and squeezed his hand.

"Give us a few minutes to get you packed with gauze and you can be on your way," Dr. Watson said. "I'll call you in something for the pain as well."

"I don't like to take pain meds," Catherine said. "They make me woozy."

"I understand that but trust me," the doctor said adamantly, "in this case the wooziness is worth it. The pain is going to be intense for a couple of days and the stress that causes is not conducive to your body healing. You could end up prolonging the process by weeks."

"You need the meds," Steve agreed. "Your pain tolerance is high, but I've been hit like that in the nose before and I know how much it hurts."

"Okay," Catherine acquiesced somewhat grudgingly. "I don't want this to last any longer than it has to."

* * *

"Mama!" Angie took off for the door as soon as it opened.

"Easy," Elizabeth warned.

"Very gentle," Steve said as he scooped Angie up before she could barrel into Catherine. "We have to be very gentle with mommy's boo boo."

"Mama." Angie lowered her voice and placed her hand gently on Catherine's cheek before leaning over from her perch in her father's arms and giving her mother a gentle hug.

"Thank you, baby girl," Catherine said. "That makes me feel 1000 times better already."

" 'Ama here." Angie raised her head and pointed to her grandmother.

"I see that." Catherine smiled.

"I have an early morning seminar at Pearl tomorrow," Joseph said, "so we thought if someone needs to stay for the late shift Elizabeth would be the better choice."

"When Grace called to see if we'd heard anything, she mentioned there was a new case," Elizabeth said.

"Yes, there is." Steve took Catherine's arm and helped her to the couch. "But they can handle it without me."

"Steve …" Catherine sat down, and Angie crawled up beside her. "I'm fine now. You should go to work."

Steve sighed. Danny had been texting him regular updates about the case which involved 4 bodies found in a public park. They suspected drug related activity, but it was too early to know for sure. "Someone needs to be here or you won't take your pain meds because they make you too drowsy to keep an eye on Angie."

"Problem solved." Elizabeth indicated her overnight bag at the foot of the stairs. "I'm here as long as you need me. Catherine can get some rest, Angie and I will be fine, and you're just a phone call away if we need you."

Steve seemed to be contemplating his next move. "You promise you'll call if you need me for anything at all?"

"I promise," Elizabeth said.

"No matter how minor it might seem," Steve added.

Elizabeth nodded. "You have my word."

Steve leaned over and kissed Catherine gently on the lips. "Are you sure?"

"Positive." She smiled. "Go. Catch all the bad guys."

"I'll check in regularly and I'll be back as soon as I can," he said.

"Daddy work?" Angie asked.

"Daddy has to go to work." Steve leaned over and kissed her. "You stay here with 'Ama and help take care of mommy's boo boo."

"Ok." Angie snuggled up against her mother.

As Steve headed for the door he heard Angie say, " 'Ama see roll?!"

He chuckled. "Whatever you do make sure you keep your head out of the way for her big finish."

**THE END**

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